E-Books

[ChasDennis]

If I buy E-books how do I make them into a book that I can take with me to read

anywhere? Please explain in simple language. I don't know about computers that well. Only

have had one for a couple of years and I don't use one at work so I am computer illiterate.


Thanks for any help.


Charlie

[fernandez6153]

You're probably going to need something along the lines of a Sony e-reader, or a Kindle to take them with you anywhere.

The biggest problem you're going to run into is making sure which ever reader you get supports the e-book that you buy. I purchased my mother the Sony e-reader a few years ago and it wouldn't read certain e-book formats. With the update that came out it was corrected, but we had to send the reader back to Sony so they could fix the issue

[wulf]

Yes - buying an ereader is the most straightforward way. Sounds expensive? Printing them and lugging stacks of paper around would probably work out much more pricey (and inconvenient) before long.

Wulf

[theosus]

Originally Posted by ChasDennis

If I buy E-books how do I make them into a book that I can take with me to read

anywhere? Please explain in simple language. I don't know about computers that well. Only

have had one for a couple of years and I don't use one at work so I am computer illiterate.


Thanks for any help.


Charlie

If you buy a kindle - it will ONLY support books you download from amazon.com, you cant download someone else's e-book.
I think the other ones will let you load e-books onto them, but you do have to have a computer.
The i-pad/ipod touch/iphone has two book apps - one essentially makes it act like a kindle (so you dont have to buy another device - and all your books download directly, you dont need a computer). The other app is iBooks - which lets you drop e-books you may have purchased or copied from other places, into the itunes program on your computer. iTunes will put the book on your ipad for you. There may be more, and of course you can email a pdf file to yourself, and read it that way.
BUT - again - you need to use a computer for all this to happen.

[Jonbar18]

Originally Posted by ChasDennis

If I buy E-books how do I make them into a book that I can take with me to read

anywhere? Please explain in simple language. I don't know about computers that well. Only

have had one for a couple of years and I don't use one at work so I am computer illiterate.


Thanks for any help.


Charlie

If you buy a kindle, you'll have to buy the books from Amazon. I'm not sure which exactly, but a lot of e-readers are powered by Kobo, so you would get the books from their site. I think the Sony ones have their own system but you'd have to double check.
Another great thing is, if you have a small laptop that you can bring with you everywhere, you can download the Kindle Pc app for free, and have all your books there without the cost of the reader.

[Doug Pardee]

What kind of e-books? They're very different, depending on where you get them, and perhaps what format you choose to get them in.

Most commercial e-books don't allow you to print them, so you're probably going to need a reader that is compatible with the type of e-books that you're looking at. In many cases, you can get a reader app for a smart-phone, an iPad, a netbook, or a computer.

By and large, fiction is good for e-books, non-fiction not so much.

[wulf]

It isn't true that you have to buy books for the Kindle from Amazon. My Kindle has plenty of free classics, some of which come from sources like Project Gutenberg. You can also read PDF files (although how easy that is depends a bit on how they are formatted). The Kindle certainly leans you towards the Amazon store but you can range wider (especially with the help of library manager software like calibre).

Wulf

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by wulf

It isn't true that you have to buy books for the Kindle from Amazon. My Kindle has plenty of free classics, some of which come from sources like Project Gutenberg.

But you didn't buy them from Gutenberg, did'ja?

Most free e-books can be used on any reader, although if they come in PDF form, they usually are a bit of a mess. It's the ones that you pay for that tend to be limited, and that's because they almost always come with DRM. Amazon's DRM is proprietary, and the only DRMed e-books a Kindle will read are Amazon's, and Amazon's DRMed e-books can only be read on a Kindle or a Kindle app.

Apple's system is even more tightly controlled, because you can't read an Apple DRMed e-book on anything that Apple didn't make.

B&N's system is slightly better in that the NOOK will read DRMed e-books from almost anyone except Amazon, and that B&N DRMed e-books can be read on a few other readers such as the Pandigital Novel and the Ectaco Jetbook Lite, as well as on devices running a B&N app.

Most everybody else uses Adobe's DRM, so there's a fair amount of interchangeability, including with B&N's NOOK.

A few publishers don't insist on DRM: Samhain, Carina, ereads.com, Smashwords, O'Reilly, and Microsoft come to mind. Their e-books are readable on just about anything.

[faeriegodess612]

Originally Posted by wulf

It isn't true that you have to buy books for the Kindle from Amazon. My Kindle has plenty of free classics, some of which come from sources like Project Gutenberg. You can also read PDF files (although how easy that is depends a bit on how they are formatted). The Kindle certainly leans you towards the Amazon store but you can range wider (especially with the help of library manager software like calibre).

Wulf

Thats exactly what I was thinking. My hubby just got a Kindle, and wanted that brand for the sole purpose that it would read files that he could get thru calibre.

[cameragirl]

iPhone or iPod touch, that is what I use to read my ebooks, it can download books from Kindle, Kobo, Barnes&Noble, all of them!! The nice thing it is backlit, got colour (great for photo books), you can put it in your pocket and have all those books with you wherever you go.